UN rights report hackneyed, inadmissible: Iran

Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights has dismissed the recent report by the United Nations special rapporteur about human rights situation in the Islamic Republic.

The report by Ahmed Shaheed, which was presented to the 31st session of the Human Rights Council on Thursday, contained no new content and was not credible, Mohammad Javad Larijani said in an interview with IRIB on Saturday.

The Iranian official dismissed Shaheed’s claims about the death penalty handed out in the country to individuals involved in terrorist activities and said Iran has a clear stance on terrorism and will not “tolerate any act of terror.”

“Iran is currently the flag-bearer in the fight against terrorism and this should be appreciated,” he added.

He criticized the bid by Shaheed to relate issues concerning terrorism to the subject of freedom of expression.

Larijani pointed to another section of the report concerning death sentences handed out to people convicted of drug-related charges, saying, “The views of our country are very clear and the world should reward us for fighting against these criminals because we are largely paying this price on behalf of the West.”

The Iranian official also censured the conduct of Shaheed vis-a-vis Iran and said human rights investigators should be unbiased but he has been taking negative stances against the Islamic Republic in various media outlets since his appointment.

Elsewhere, the Iranian human rights chief described as “fundamental and basic” the Islamic Republic's approach toward the issue of human rights; warning, however, against measuring the performance of countries in this regard against standards set by the so-called advocates of human rights in the West “who have the blood of thousands of people on their hands.”

“These advocates," Larijani said, "are those who mastermind and create the likes of Daesh [Takfiri terrorist group] and basically have no right to speak about human right.”

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk